The state's highest court ruled today that Bergen County should release eight million pages of real estate documents -- including mortgages -- to fulfill a request filed under the state's public records law, but that Social Security numbers included in them must be kept private.

The justices also said the company requesting the information -- and not the county -- should pay the $460,000 tab to remove the Social Security numbers from records spanning more than two decades.

The court unanimously agreed the documents, requested by a firm that wants to provide electronic access to this information, were public records under the state's Open Public Records Act. But it stressed some of the personal information would hurt residents, if released.

"The request was made on behalf of a commercial business planning to catalogue and sell the information by way of an easy-to-search computerized database. Were that to occur, an untold number of citizens would face an increased risk of identity theft," wrote Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, for the court.

Bergen County officials said the decision was a victory for all New Jersey residents with concerns about identity theft.

"While the public has a right to public records, the public also has a right to privacy of personal information," said Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerney

John Carbone, Bergen County's lawyer, said homeowners who submitted their personal information on real estate documents did not expect it would be used by a data-mining company. He said the clerk's office was suspicious of the request by Fred Burnett, who worked for Data Trace Services, a company that operates land record databases for more than 200 counties in 25 states and sells access to that information.

"They asked for institutional liens that used to be filed for persons who were committed to psychiatric institutions. Why would you ask for 22 years of who has been committed to a psychiatric institution? It was a request that heightened everyone's attention," said Carbone.

Ed Barocas, Legal Director of the ACLU of New Jersey, said Burnett did not have to explain why he wanted the document or who he was because the Open Public Records Act protects residents' requests.

But Barocas said he was "generally pleased" with the court's decision to keep Social Security numbers private.

"If a document is public but contains medical information or Social Security numbers, that is private and doesn't shed light on government functions," said Barocas.

In this case, the court said Bergen County should not have to pay the estimated $460,000 cost of printing out eight million pages -- most from microfilm -- and blacking out Social Security numbers. That fee would be assessed to Burnett's firm.

Justices Barry Albin and Virginia Long dissented on this point, saying the Bergen County Clerk was free to black out that information but in their opinion, the Open Public Records Act does not require it. Albin said if a clerk decides to remove Social Security numbers from a requested document, the county should "shoulder the responsibility" of the cost.
Michael Gartland of The Record contributed to this report.